The infamous Gibb River Road is a cattle route that joins the remote towns of Wyndam and Derby through the North Kimberly’s. It was built for road trains to transport cattle and now is a popular 4wd tourist route and alternate passage through the Kimberly region as an alternative to the Great Northern Highway.

The road passes through private cattle stations and briefly through the King Leopold Range National Park. Most of the 700km’s of the road are unsealed and attract 4wd’s due to river crossings that are only passable by 4wd’s in the dry season.

The experience of driving along the Gibb River Road is something we were both looking forward too. I was mostly looking forward to a remote and un-touched landscape, and Rob, the challenge of the drive.

We entered the road at its Easternmost point just south of Wyndam. It only took us about 30km until we found our first stop. ‘El Questro Station’. El Questro is a privately owned station that has made the most of the remote tourist route. They encourage access to the property by signing it as ‘1 million acres of wilderness’ and charge you $18 for a week long ‘wilderness pass’ which allows you access to the property. It seemed a bit pricey and it proved to be the most expensive access fee charged by any of the stations, however El Questro truly is the jewel of the Kimberly. As one of the largest properties, they own stunning gorges, luxurious natural hot springs and offer an extensive range of walks and 4wd tracks throughout the property. Our first stop was Emma gorge. The one-hour walk led to a stunning waterfall! And plunge pool. As if the 80m waterfall into a lush, crystal clear pool wasn’t good enough, Emma gorge also hosted a hot spring that fed a tiny waterfall and rock pool on the main pools edge. Heaven!

We spent the night camping at El Questro (for another $18pp, ouch!) to spend some more time exploring the property. We visited the Zebadee springs first thing in the morning and they were so fantastic that they exceeded all our expectations. The springs feed into a valley that is home to a lush rainforest full of palms. The stream of hot water forms in multiple pools throughout the palms and you can just pick a pool for yourself! At a balmy 32degrees it was a fantastic was to start our day. How lucky for the El Questro family to own a property with such natural treasures.

We decided to skip the signature gorge of the property, El Questro Gorge as we didn’t have enough time to see everything and we were worried about the river crossing to the gorge as it was the deepest of the property and deeper than anything we had crossed yet. So we continued to head West only to meet an even bigger river crossing! Below is the ‘Pentecost River’ with a road train crossing through it. We crossed before the road train and it was a lot of fun!

Sadly, as this was our first river crossing on the Gibb River Road, we looked at the water and said to ourselves‘welcome to the Gibb River Road’ and crossed the river thinking it was the beginning of Gibb River journey and the first of many big river cossings to come. At the time, we didn’t realise that this river crossing was by far the biggest of the Gibb River and is infamous for it’s size. We didn’t give the river crossing the celebration it deserved.

Further on we stopped for afternoon tea ‘Elenbrae Station’ for the well-regarded scones. We had heard about these scones hundreds of kilometres away and I was looking forward to the freshly baked treat! It was a great stop for the afternoon however I think my friends at the stitchery could win at a bake off any day!

We spent our second night on the Gibb River Road at a free campsite down a sandy 4wd track at ‘Barnett River Gorge’. The gorge wasn’t great, and the campsite had no facilities however it was good to save some cash and camp for free. After the disappointment of Barnett River Gorge, we were reluctant to pay the Barnett River Roadhouse $8 for access to another gorge on their property, Manning Gorge. It was however well worth the cost! We drove to the start of the walking trail, put on our boots and packed our backpacks for the 4km return walk. We read the trail information sign that directed us to follow the red arrows and then couldn’t find the red arrows. We couldn’t figure out where the walk started until someone pointed us across the river. Turned out, the walk started with a swim! Off with the boots and clothes and into a Styrofoam box (which was provided just for this purpose) and we swam across the river to head towards the gorge.

Manning Gorge was lovely and perfect for a midday swim. It is quite a big waterfall and pool that offered plenty of room to find a place of your own and feel a million miles from the rest of the world.

By this stage we were really enjoying the drive, the countryside and the red corrugated road. We listened to lots of Paul Kelly and drove with the windows down to make the most of the warm afternoons.

We really scored for our next night. We pulled over on the side of the road and set up our tent overlooking the King Leopold Ranges. It was free, but offered a million-dollar view. The sunrise the following morning was sensational, however we enjoyed it from the warmth of our sleeping bags and have no photos to show you. Sorry!

Our next destination was Bell Gorge, which is part of the King Leopold Ranges National Park.  Bell Gorge was a smaller version of Manning gorge and was very pretty!

Our final point of interest on the Gibb River Road was Windjana Gorge. Windjana Gorge is national reserve, which is just like a national park. It is special because the sheer cliffs that jot out of the flat plains are actually giant and ancient coral reefs that existed in the Kimberly’s well before the dinosaurs. At points, the reef is a sheer 200m taller than the surrounding plain. The gorge also is apparently the premier place in Australia to view freshwater crocodiles and it did not disappoint!

We ended our journey along the Gibb River Road just outside Derby after 4 nights and 5 days. We found the road to be in good condition for most of the way and was sealed in sections. The road seems to have been improved from the western side which meant that most of the western river crossing’s we actually cemented weirs.

We could have spent more time on the Gibb River Road exploring more stations and their natural offerings, however we feel that we managed to get a good taste of what the northern Kimberly’s had to offer. We would like to return to the Gibb River Road one day and work our way from West to East as we believe that the road only gets better as you drive East. We really had the best, most lush and most luxurious offerings of the Gibb River Road on our first day! El Questro would be a great finish in contrast to be beginning.

 

We also would have liked the luxury of more time to detour off the Gibb River Road north up the Kulumbru Road which leads up to the Mitchell Plateau. We had heard many wonderful things about the beauty of the Mitchell Plateau however we simply didn’t have enough time to explore it. Although the distances are not that great, the rough road conditions make it a long and challenging drive.

 

We would recommend the Gibb River Road experience to anyone interested in exploring the rugged Kimberly’s. We suggest you travel west to east and travel no later than mid September, as then the refreshing waterholes would start to dry up. 5 days is plenty of time to get a good taste of the region, however at least another 4 days would be needed if you were to explore further north along the Kulumbru Road.

 

The highlights of our Gibb River experience were:

Emma Gorge

Zebadee Springs

The Pentacost River Crossing

Manning Gorge, and

Windjana Gorge.